GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — If you’re a voter, you could be deciding whether your county or city gets a sales tax increase. Gov. Tony Evers is proposing counties and cities with populations of more than 30,000 people have the ability to ask voters for an additional 0.5% sales tax.
The state sales tax rate is 5%. All but four Wisconsin counties, including Manitowoc and Winnebago Counties, tack on an additional 0.5% sales tax.
Under the new proposal, the maximum sales tax in the state would go from 5.5% to 6.5%.
Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich says if he’s able, he’ll put the referendum on the ballot.
“Our property taxes are a bit higher than other locations. Our sales taxes are much lower. So I think this offers us the opportunity to balance things a little bit. To reduce property taxes,” Genrich said.
Genrich added that the city has significant infrastructure needs. With current fiscal restraints, it is difficult for the city to tackle large projects.
Outagamie County Board Chair Jeff Nooyen says it’s a decision for the future.
“First of all, we need to find out if it’s going to survive the governor’s budget, and then is there a need for it?” Nooyen said.
Outagamie County implemented a 0.5% sales tax increase in 2020. Nooyen says even in a pandemic, it did what it was supposed to do.
“We had anticipated $20 million. Fortunately even in the middle of a pandemic we generated I think $17.5 million,” Nooyen said.
Brown County also implemented a 0.5% sales tax increase in 2018.
It’s something the Brown County Taxpayers Association challenged in court.
“The public at this point in time have enough to deal with without having the yoke of another tax imposed on them right now,” Brown County Taxpayers Association President Rich Heidel said.
He says ultimately, it should be up to the taxpayers.
“With that as an underlying condition, taxpayers association has no problem with this,” Heidel said.
There’s no guarantee you’ll see this referendum on a future ballot. The governor’s budget plan will go to the Legislature, which will spend months debating and eventually will pass its own budget.
The governor will unveil his budget plan Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m.
